Agogic is, in some ways, a musical homecoming celebration for Seattle natives Vu and D'Angelo (whose work with Matt Wilson, Human Feel and Kurt Rosenwinkel is nothing short of remarkable) following extended stays in Boston and New York City. Agogic's other two members – bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Evan Woodle – are products of Seattle's very fertile jazz and experimental music scene. With this young and extremely capable rhythm section in tow, Vu and D'Angelo are free to explore all sorts of stylistic variations and intersections, unfettered by big city music politics and the ensuing creative burnout.

Poetry's strength is unexpected. It always surprises us, probably because there is lesser and lesser of it around us. It overcomes geographic distance, generational features and language differences.It drags us to a sublime level, since it moves into a space without reference points and crosses the boundaries of what we can see, hear think and imagine. But how it comes that we speak of poetry for a musical artifact?Because Sabir Mateen and Silvia Bolognesi, in "Holidays in Siena", are poets, first of all. Far from a worn out romantic concept (inspiration, destiny...) they create sounds, mix, contrasts, silence spots, that show not only contemporary anxiety but also the joy of playing together.

Conversation is interactive, more-or-less spontaneous, communication between two or more conversants. Interactivity occurs because contributions to a conversation are response reactions to what has previously been said. Spontaneity occurs because a conversation must proceed, to some extent, and in some way, unpredictably, contrasting with a scripted conversation, which falls outside this definition.

A true metamorphosis in every sense, the Italian musicians, including American avant-garde strings performer Mat Maneri, subliminally metabolize various genres into an exceedingly persuasive string of events.  It's a free-form gala that also relies on structure and a group-focused sense of democracy.

Something Quiet is Bob Gluck's second recording following up his 2008 Sideways. This is his first recording as an acoustic jazz player. The trio consists of Gluck, Joe Giardullo on soprano sax, and Christopher Dean Sullivan on bass. On this recording the listener is treated to some intricate compositions, ensemble playing, and improvisation that ranges from the quietest of moments to the cacophony of all out interaction between the musicians. Gluck's compositions are entertaining for their depth

Prior to the 21st Century, Merle Haggard's name did not come up all too often when discussing modern jazz - or jazz of any kind, for that matter. Along with everything else, this seems to have changed. Pretend It's The End Of The World is the product of saxophonist Bryan Murray's quest to bring the name 'Merle Haggard' to the lips of Brooks-Brothers-wearing be-boppers, finger-snapping hipsters, and poetry-reciting beatniks the world over. The tongue-in-cheekiness of the whole concept is fleshed

This quartet provides a many-sided viewpoint, where freedom of expression is laconically aligned with the avant-garde strata. Stationed in Chicago, the quartet led by alto saxophonist Aram Shelton offers a program consisting of subtle hooks, detours and focused theme-building exercises. Engineered upon straightforward bop, capacious improvisation, and numerous subplots, the quartet throttles the intensity level throughout. Shelton and vibist Jason Adasiewicz are strong foils, whether they gen

Adventurous has always been the word for the music of Matthew Shipp, and Art of the Improviser his new two-CD set is no exception. At first glance, the purple-and-black cover, with its solid-set lettering, appears to be two disks of Matt solo, but it turns out to be two dates: one in a trio with drummer Whit Dickey and bassist Mike Bisio (recorded in Troy, New York) and a second solo at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. Both contain reworkings of previously recorded tunes, and there are two lov

These veteran Italian improvisers convey freedom of expression with a musical panorama that scales rather well. One of the compelling factors on this live recording pertains to the band’s ability to expand themes and subplots without concentrating on one mode of action. With capacious and unrestricting dialogues to complement a myriad of asymmetrical rhythmic variations, the musicians inject dainty contrasts and temperate flows into the grand schema.Saxophonist Edoardo Marraffa’s raspy voicing

On The Prairie Prophet, saxophonist Ernest Dawkins and his New Horizon Ensemble pay tribute to friend and mentor Fred Anderson, saxophonist and owner of the Velvet Lounge in Chicago who passed away on June 24, 2010. Dawkins and company traverse a diverse landscape of musical moods, from jubilant buoyancy ("Hymn for a Hip King"), to intense spontaneity ("Sketches"), to lyrical ensemble statements ("Balladesque," "Shades of the Prairie Prophet"). Standout soloing is in abundance throughout with st

A dog is a man’s best friend, indeed. And on this 2010 release, improvising sax great Lol Coxhill and eminent drummer/percussionist Roger Turner pay a bit of abstract homage to our much beloved canines. The improvisation is at times minimalist in scope, yet the continually moving parts equate into a polytonal feast for one’s psyche.Coxhill performs on his customary soprano saxophone and counters Turner’s bells hits, rim-shots, tom tom patterns and colorific integration of small percussion impl

Back-when, there was a TV preview-trailer for the science-fiction movie The Blob (the original, not the 1980s remake) that scared the living [fill in blank] out of me. “The monster that can’t be killed,” screamed the icy voice-over. The Blob was this formless, massive organism that basically absorbed anything living that it touched, growing ever larger in the process. Around the same time (we're talking late 1950s), the scary monsters of free jazz and rock & roll were threatening the world,

Doing something unique with the vibraphone is a tough road to walk, especially if one is a serious musician. Notoriously difficult to play with respect to the instrument’s lack of emotional variety, it’s no surprise its best practitioners have been those of the swing world like Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson and Terry Gibbs, or more modern ensemble-tied visionaries like Mike Mainieri, Steve Nelson or Stefon Harris. Truly original voices, such as Gary Burton’s, are very rare in this world.BR

Strange timing, this. Almost 25 years after it was originally recorded comes this medium-length conversation between two titans of American improvised music. Fans of jazz’ farther out shores will need little introduction to either of the participants here. But despite their joint (and lazy) labeling as “outcats,” the initial highpoints of their careers – Smith’s sparse and subtle phrasing with the Smith-Braxton-Jenkins trio vs. Blackwell’s upbeat tapdancing underneath the classic Ornette Coleman

Faced with the prospect of listening to an entire CD of improvised voice-and-percussion duos, I was initially a bit put-off and placed Scarnoduo into the 'back-burner' stack. But the CD's lovely packaging, of all things, made me curious. Once I got it into my CD player, the sheer inventiveness, broad humor, and technical excellence of Blastula quickly won me over. Scarnoduo is certainly one of the year’s very best avant-garde releases, and another feather in the cap for the consistently great Am

ElectroAcoustic Silence, also known as EASilence, is a collaborative effort involving an Italian jazz quartet and Japanese electronic musician Taketo Gohara. Though Gohara is credited with ‘sound design’ on the CD’s packaging, his contributions to Flatime hearken back to the synthesized swoops, sweeps, boops, and beeps I first heard from artists such as Pat Gleeson on Herbie Hancock’s early 70s LPs, or perhaps to the electronic palette of musique concrete as formulated by Pierre Schaffer and Pie

Drummer / composer / arranger Mark Lomax drives a free-leaning tenor sax-fronted power trio with sure hands and graceful instincts on his fifth recording as a leader, The State Of Black America. The Blacksburg, VA native, an active music educator, and drum clinician has also worked with Azar Lawrence, Delfeayo Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, and Marlon Jordan. Lomax' compositions, while firmly rooted in the jazz tradition, give bassist Dean Hulett and tenor saxophonist Edwin Bayard plenty of room for

Trumpeter Ron Miles is one of those musicians who is always doing something that is worth paying attention to. This disc – prosaically titled 3ology With Ron Miles - is no exception. 3ology is a Denver-based saxophone – bass – drums trio that performs groove-based improvised music. Clearly, these three fellows have been playing together for quite some time – they've established a rich and multi-layered rapport, and never fall prey to all the sorts of excesses I associate with free improvisation

The first thing I thought when listening to “5000 Poems” the new recording from trombonist / composer Steve Swell and his 'Slammin' the Infinite' band was: “...good old Free Jazz!” This disc instantly transported me back to the late 1960s, when free jazz was really 'The New Thing,' and was really new - fresh and unencumbered by several decades worth of uninformed media baggage. 'Not Their Kind' opens “5000 Poems” with trombone and saxophone essaying a brief theme in a rush of splashy drums and C

As we enter the second decade of the 21st Century, Rich Halley has flourished into one of the world's very finest jazz tenor saxophonists. Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival is Halley's 11th as a leader, and his second with former Ornette sideman Bobby Bradford. The ace cornetist is a logical choice as a front-line partner – his cool, concise playing contrasts sharply with Halley's heated, note-intensive offerings. And though Halley's sound and approach to the horn clearly comes from the John Col

Guitarist and composer John Czajkowski's latest recording,“West ZooOpolis,” is one of the most unlikely projects I've encountered in quite some time. Equal parts progressive rock and jazz-rock fusion, and some other sort of undefined musical sub-genre, “West ZooOpolis” was conceived as a musical overlay to a 52-minute long, pre-recorded drum solo created by German drum virtuoso Marco Minnemann. For those of you who aren't familiar with Minnemann, he is possibly one of the greatest technical drum

Reedman and composer Ken Thomson is one busy dude. Besides his steady gigs with the edgy avant-jazz-rock group Gutbucket and the avant-garde marching band The Asphalt Orchestra and his affiliation with the Bang On A Can project, he's also a member of the World/Inferno Friendship Society, Brad Lubman's 'Signal,' Fire in July, the No Net Trio, and is a co-founder of the Anti-Social Music collective. And that's just a partial list! 'Slow / Fast' is Thomson's latest project, and composing, arranging

For an ensemble to create a lengthy recording of improvised music worthy of an attentive audience, it takes a unique combination of technique and empathy. Such is the case with Varpai from the German-based trio of vocalist André Pabarciuté, bassist Mark Tokar and percussionist Klaus Kugel. The three like-minded artists perform through ten, seamlessly connected pieces with a strong sense of musical connectedness, impressively void of pretension. With emotional wails and melodious, nasally grunts,

Exploring odd-meters, swirling melodic themes and rhythmically-charged free-form improvisations, the New York-based collective Tarbaby delivers an intriguing set of swing-based jazz with The End of Fear. Along with core members Orrin Evans on piano, bassist Eric Revis and Nasheet Watts on drums, the twelve-track set features the trumpeter Nicholas Payton and saxophonists Oliver Lake and JD Allen. The use of speech sound bites cleverly enhances shorter, open-ended pieces such as "E-Math" and "Hea

The new project by Italian musician Claudio Scolari is a fascinating mix of acoustic and electronic sounds creating an almost cinematic atmosphere. For this album Claudio has the collaboration of Daniele Cavalca on drums, bass and vibraphone and Simone Scolari on trumpet.Scolari music, like the tracks Electric light over water and Emotion appearance can be described as improvised as avant-garde jazz but it is so much more. It has elements of classical music, and other jazz styles. For example Va

Two hands to do the deed. Eight note in a search of a scale. Nine songs in 45 minutes, and 88 keys at his command. So, what is a solo pianist to do now?Well, for Jim Hegarty, the options presented above form an aural playground where five originals and four standards receive random reorganizations as infinite melodic possibilities are stretched this way, that way, and – oh, hell, why not?! – that way, too.Hegarty’s Cut it/out (Noise Reduction Society) is best described as a soundtrack for a free

Though he is relatively new to the New York jazz scene, Memphis-born bassist Stephan Crump already has an impressively broad-minded musical resumé, having worked with (among others) blue-eyed soul crooner Michael McDonald, ex-Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, singer-songwriter (and wife) Jen Chapin, saxophonist Greg Osby, and Gregg Bendian's Mahavishnu Project. His current primary gig is with the avant-jazz piano genius Vijay Iyer. Crump's own Rosetta Trio with acoustic g

After listening repeatedly and closely to “Forty Fort,” I decided that the music of the wonderfully creative quartet Mostly Other People Do The Killing (MOPDTK for short) is more 'cutting edge' than 'avant garde.' This distinction is important. Avant garde – while a completely appropriate term for many musical forms and styles - carries the connotation that one must be in a special state of mind, or have a certain sort of intellectual qualification, to truly appreciate the music. But the music o

Recordings like Jeff Antoniuk's Brotherhood invariably make me think hard about what I mean when I use the term 'modern mainstream jazz.' In one sense, it's an okay (not great) term to use when describing jazz that isn't fusion (but could have some fusion-y leanings), isn't really avant garde (but often has some 'out' harmonies and ideas), is influenced largely by the classic bop and post-bop jazz of the 50s and 60s, and consists largely of the players' original compositions. Somehow, these sort

Queens College Professor Neil K. Friedman Ph.D. was the host to a neighborhood jazz outing for nephew Adam Kassell Hoffman of Londonderry, New Hampshire and college gal friend at Cleopatra’s Needle, 2485 Broadway between 92nd and 93rd Street, New York, NY on March 18, 2005 to introduce The Spirit of Life Ensemble’s world-beat to the youthful neophytes.

This historical and worthy reissue from the original 1975 Incus LP parlays the vibrant, British free-jazz/improvisational scene of the era. With saxophonist Evan Parker,…

The new project by Italian musician Claudio Scolari is a fascinating mix of acoustic and electronic sounds creating an almost cinematic atmosphere. For this album Claudi…

Two hands to do the deed. Eight note in a search of a scale. Nine songs in 45 minutes, and 88 keys at his command. So, what is a solo pianist to do now?Well, for …

Though he is relatively new to the New York jazz scene, Memphis-born bassist Stephan Crump already has an impressively broad-minded musical resumé, having worked with (amon…

After listening repeatedly and closely to "Forty Fort," I decided that the music of the wonderfully creative quartet Mostly Other People Do The Killing (MOPDTK for s…

Recordings like Jeff Antoniuk's Brotherhood invariably make me think hard about what I mean when I use the term 'modern mainstream jazz.' In one sense, it's an oka…

These jazz and improvisation pioneers have performed together within various ensembles as leaders and members of numerous band aggregations for decades. Yet, pianist Ale…

One of the titans of jazz and neo-jazz improvisation, Ivo Perelman celebrates his twenty-year career with eight 2010 releases for various record labels. The Stream o…

Gifted Pianist Nobu Stowe , guitarist/reedest Ross Bonadonna, bassist Tyler Goodwin, drummer Ray Sage and Sonic engineer Lee Pembleton, have put forth an amazing piece o…

Multi-reedist and composer Gebhard Ullmann is one of those players who refuses to be pigeonholed. His bright, edgy playing fits into numerous musical contexts - be it fusio…

Tweet Tweet is one heck of an ambitious CD and Abraham Inc. is one heck of an ambitious band. A co-operative project led by the somewhat unlikely trio of klezme…

Like The Rusted Key is one of those recordings that approaches the vast array of musics that have been lumped under the umbrella of modern jazz from a dizzying arr…

The title of Ross Bolleter’s 2010 release designates that these solo performances on ruined pianos were performed simultaneously in his kitchen, largely during the eveni…

One of two recent releases on Motema by Geri Allen, Geri Allen & Timeline Live is not your usual live recording of a quartet date. Geri, a renowned contemporary pianist, is…

On this solo CD, Geri Allen doesn’t hide her influences. The cover proclaims it "inspired by Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock." It definitely is. Yet this ether…

The gap between free-form or semi-structured song forms and the art of melody making are generally two distinct entities, drawing upon numerous contrasts. Many artists m…

Decoy is the British free jazz trio of Hammond B-3 organist Alexander Hawkins, bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble. 49 year-old Hawkins has played with free jaz…

Who says that three musicians from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) playing "shaved-face music" the term given by Dizzy Gillespie for pia…

I'd have a hard time thinking of a more unlikely musical combination than a horn-based jazz band performing instrumental, but more-or-less true-to-the-source versions of Ca…

So often, 2 CD sets are rife with 'for rabid fans only' musical filler and so-so material, maybe containing one CD's worth of music that garners a listener's repeated atten…